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DisqusThis!

DisqusThis! is a drop-in Google Gadget that provides standard social networking features using AddThis and Disqus, two of the most popular platforms for content sharing and discussions.

Features

Uses the most popular content sharing and discussion services, using their default configurations.

Gadget automatically resizes to fit content exactly.

There is NO required per-page configuration for Disqus! Configuration options default to the most popular settings. (AddThis requires the Publisher ID to be added in the gadget config.)

All code is hosted on servers at Google, AddThis and Disqus, increasing availability and uptime.

Gadget works with both custom URLs and the standard sites.google.com URLs.

Setup

You must have a Disqus account with a shortname that exactly matches your Google Sites name (sites.google.com/site/panamericantour), or the domain of your custom URL (www.panamericantour.net). In edit mode, insert the cursor where you want to add the Gadget, use the menu to select Insert > More Gadgets, then click "Add Gadget by URL", and paste the URL found towards the bottom of this page. Configure as desired using the options explained below.

Configuration

Custom Domain? This is "true" by default. If left checked, DisqusThis! will be hidden when your site is accessed by the google sites URL. This ensures that visitors cannot perform actions for the same content from two URLs, since both AddThis and Disqus use the page URL to uniquely identify pages.

Site ID position in Custom Domain (ie. [3].[2].[1].TLD) This is "1" by default. DisqusThis! uses your site name as the Disqus shortname, and needs to know where to look in the URL for your site name. For example, if your custom domain is mysite.mydnsservice.net, you would enter "2" to pass "mysite". If you are using the google sites URL, this option will be ignored.

Top Level Page? This is false by default. As with the "Custom Domain?" option, it is intended to prevent the gadget from being viewed through two URLs. Specifically, the goal is to hide the gadget when announcements are viewed from the list page instead of through the individual announcement pages. Check this box to allow the gadget to be viewed from top-level pages.

Button Text. If you want to display Disqus only after a user has clicked a button, enter the button text here. If no text is entered, the button will not appear and Disqus will be visible.

AddThis Publisher ID. If you also want to use AddThis, enter your Publisher ID here. If you do not enter anything, AddThis will not appear on your page.

Additional Information

I wrote DisqusThis because after two years of using Google Sites, they have still not enabled guest comments even though many users have requested it. Other attempts I've seen at using discussion plug-ins have been cumbersome and unreliable, and generally require per-page configuration. I wanted a Gadget that provided both sharing and commenting, with as little per-page configuration as possible.

Cost

It's free, but I'm requesting a donation of $5 USD, per site. Feel free to donate as much as you want though. :)